Hand wheel drive for circular knitting machines



May 24, 1955 s. s. LEOTTA EI'AL 2,708,837 HAND WHEEL DRIVE FOR CIRCULAR KNITTING MACHINES Filed Jan. 26, 1953 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 IN VENTORS lia'fizzzeilifieaih Fuzzy/Viki;

BY Wax/9 ATTORNEY 4, 1955 s, s. LEOTTA ETAL 2,708,837

HAND WHEEL DRIVE FOR CIRCULAR KNITTING MACHINES Filed Jan. 26. 1953 s Sheets-Sheet 2 1N VENTORS ATTORNEY May 24, 1955 s. s. LEOTTA ETAL 2,703,837

HAND WHEEL DRIVE F OR CIRCULAR KNITTING MACHINES Filed Jan. 26, 1953 3 Sheets-Sheet 5 ATTORNEY HAND WHEEL DRIVE FOR CIRCULAR KNITTING MACHINES Samuel S. Leotta, Jenkintown, and Philip N. Patt, Trevose Heights, Pa., assignors, by mesne assignments, to Scott & Williams, Inc., Laconia, N. H., a corporation of Massachusetts Application January 26, 1953, Serial No. 333,048 Claims. (Cl. 66-8) Our invention relates to a hand wheel drive for circular knitting machines, audit is an object of the same to provide and disclose manual means for turning a circular knitting machine, which means shall be so located that the machine can be rotated manually by a knitter, regardless of his position about the circumference of the machine.

Another'object of the invention is to provide manual operating means that shall be out of the way of attendants and passers-by and which shall not interfere with free movement of persons around or past the machine.

Another object is to improve the appearance of a circular knitting machine, by means of an improved symmetrical arrangement of the manual drive, in place of projecting cranks and hand wheels such as have been used heretofore.

Another object is to provide a circumferentially extending manually operable hand wheel or hand ring with means for turning the machine upon rotation of the said wheel in one direction, but with no effect on the machine if rotated in the opposite direction.

Referring to the annexed drawings, which are made a part of this application and in which similar reference characters indicate similarv parts:

Fig. 1 is an elevation of a circular knitting machine of any desirable or conventional type, here shown as being a conventional rib knitting machine embodying the devices of our invention,

Fig. 2, a vertical section of parts of the machine, on an enlarged scale,

Fig. 3, a vertical section at right angles to Fig. 2,

Fig. 4, a somewhat diagrammatic perspective of the parts of our invention,

Fig. 5, a sectional view of an overrunning clutch,

Fig. 6, a horizontal section of a modified form of the invention, and

Fig. 7, a section on line 7-7 of Fig. 6.

In the drawings, reference character 10 indicates the frame of a circular knitting machine, which is mounted on legs 11. The machine has a main drive shaft 12, which may be operated by power in any suitable or conventional manner. The main shaft is connected to a vertical shaft 13 by bevel gears 14, 15, and said shaft drives a needle cylinder and dial in conventional manner. These parts and adjacent parts that are shown in the drawings being well-known, will not be described.

For turning the machine by hand we have provided means including a worm wheel 19 on the main shaft 12, said worm wheel engaging a worm 20 on an upright shaft 21. The shaft 21 has a friction cone 22 mounted thereon and splined to said shaft by a spline 23. An oppositely tapered cone 24 is slidable axially upon the body of cone 22 and is connected by a radial spline 34 to cone 22 so as to rotate with cone 22. A coil spring 25 encircles the body of the cone 22, said spring bearing at one end upon cone 24 and extending into a recess in a nut 26. The spring forces cone 24 toward cone 22. The nut 26 is held against rotation by a screw 27. The pressure of the 2,708,837 Patented May 24, 1955 spring upon cone 24 may be varied by adjustment of nut 26. The working faces of the cones are preferably faced with friction material, as indicated at 28.

A hand wheel or ring 29 encircles the cylinder and is preferably shaped as shown in section in Fig.2, with concentric upper and lower faces about its periphery, shaped to fit against the opposed faces of cones 22 and 24. Steel wear plates 30 are fixed to the under side of ring 29, as

by screws 31, and the wear plates rest one shoulder 32 on the outer periphery of the bed plate 33 of the machine. As a matter of convenience lugs 35 are formed on the ring 29, said lugs projecting inwardly and being shaped so as to clear the outer periphery of the bed plate above the shoulder. The worm wheel is free on the main shaft of the machine but is connected to said shaft in known manner, as-

contrary direction, since such movement would be liable to damage the machine.

It will be understood that the means disclosed may be used for turning any machine of the circular type with equal facility. The manual operating member need not necessarily be a complete annulus, nor need it be used only for manual rotation of the machine. Driving connections other than frictional faces may be substituted for those shown, e. g., gear teeth, knurled faces, belting, tapes, etc.

Thus, we have shown a modified form of the invention in Figs. 6 and 7, wherein positively acting toothed gearing is substituted for the friction gearing of the previously described figures. Such gearing, here shown as of the lantern gear type, is preferred by reason of the exact and certain drive through said lantern gearing, which comprises a large lantern wheel encircling the needle cylinder and serving as a hand wheel. This lantern wheel comprises two rings 40, connected by intermediate bars 41 that are engaged by teeth 42 of a pinion 43, so that upon rotation of the hand wheel in one direction, the needle cylinder is rotated manually while rotation of the hand wheel in the opposite sense has no effect on the cylinder, due to the free wheeling means such as that shown in Fig. 5.

The pinion 43 is fixed on an upright shaft 21' and is spaced from the adjacent part of the frame 10 by a washer. As in the form first described, the hand wheel has projections 35' extending inwardly toward the needle cylinder to space the inner periphery of the wheel from an adjacent circular part of the frame, and it may be supported by such means as is shown in Fig. 2.

It will also be understood that many changes may be made in the devices herein disclosed, all without departing from the spirit of the invention; and therefore we do not limit ourselves to what is shown in the drawings and described in the specification, but only as indicated in the appended claims. It will be obvious also that a circumferentially movable device may be used to actuate electrical or mechanical means for additional machine control.

This application is a continuation-in-part of our application Serial No. 232,902, filed June 2, 1951 and now abandoned.

Having thus fully described our invention, what we claim is:

1. A circular knitting machine comprising a cylinder, a main drive shaft for driving the cylinder, a hand wheel encircling the cylinder, a second shaft, driving means connecting the second shaft to the hand wheel, and reducing gearing between said second shaft and the main drive shaft.

amass? 2. A device as in claim 1, wherein the second-named shaft is upright and the driving means includes a pair of friction cones on the upright shaft engaging the upper and lower faces of the hand wheel.

3. A device as in claim 2, including yielding means pressing the cones against the hand wheel.

4. A device as in claim 3, including adjusting means for the pressing means.

5. A device as in claim 1, including opposed friction cones on the second-named shaft bearing against the upper and lower faces of the hand Wheel, and friction linings on the opposed faces of the friction cones.

6. A circular knitting machine comprising a cylinder, a main drive shaft for rotating the cylinder, a manually operable member extending circumferentially of the machine, a shaft geared to said manually operable member, and unidirectional driving connections between the second-named shaft and the main drive shaft.

7. A circular knitting machine comprising a needle bed, a main drive shaft for rotating the needle bed, a

hand wheel surrounding said bed and driving connections between said main drive shaft and said hand wheel for rotating said needle bed.

8. A device as in claim 7, including unidirectional driving means connecting said wheel to said main shaft.

9. A device as in claim 7, said hand wheel having inwardly extending lugs spacing it from the adjacent part of the machine frame.

10. A device as in claim 7, including one or more wear plates on said Wheel, and fixed means on which said plates rest to support the wheel.

11. A device as in claim 7, including Wear resisting means at the under side of the Wheel, and fixed supporting means engaging the wear resisting means.

12. A knitting machine as in claim 7, wherein the driving means comprises positive gearing connecting the said main shaft to said hand Wheel.

13. A knitting machine as in claim 7, wherein the driving connections include a second shaft and a toothed gear on said second shaft meshing with gear teeth on the hand wheel.

14. A device as in claim 7, wherein the hand wheel embodies a lantern gear, said driving connections include a shaft geared to said main shaft and a pinion on said second shaft, said pinion meshing with said lantern gear.

15. A circular knitting machine comprising a circular needle bed and adjacent parts, a main shaft for relatively rotating said needle bed and adjacent parts, a hand Wheel surrounding said needle bed and adjacent parts, and driving connections between said shaft and said hand wheel to cause relative movement between said needle bed and said adjacent parts.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,580,617 Stibbe et a1 Jan. 1, 1952 

